Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Government Thursday launched Social Awareness & Action to Neutralize Pneumonia Successfully (SAANS) programme to reduce child mortality owing to pneumonia, which contributes to around 15 per cent of deaths of children under the age of five annually.
SAANS was launched by state Health Department to mobilise people to protect children from pneumonia, and train health personnel and other stakeholders to provide prioritised treatment to control the disease.
Health and Family Welfare Department Additional Chief Secretary Pradipta Kumar Mohapatra inaugurated the campaign virtually.
Under the campaign, a child suffering from pneumonia can be treated with pre-referral dose of antibiotic amoxicillin by ASHA workers, and health and wellness centres can use pulse oximeter (device to monitor oxygen saturation) to identify low oxygen levels in the blood of a child. Besides, the patients can be treated by use of oxygen cylinders.
Detecting under-five children with pneumonia and treating them by the frontline health workers will continue from November 12, 2020 to February 28, 2021 to reduce child deaths, an official source said.
PNN